Real crazy, like the way they could’ve easily given her some main plots to actually utilize her character instead of just having her in the background for one liners but just refused to is terrible
It really is crazy I don't even remember a episode about her at all it's sooo crazy they basically kept her as a sassy black friend for the white counterpart
It really sucks that Liberty was left out given that the show chose to focus her largest storyline the teen pregnancy on JT instead of her unlike with other teen pregnancy storylines where the main focus would be of the pregnant person
Her first year when she was recurring they made her somewhat interesting. She cared so much about being popular she even hid her true nationality as a Somalian , pretending to be Jamaican. And that was the best plot line she got, before she was even main cast.
Its weird because Lucy from Degrassi Jr. High/High was SO developed and had solid roles in multiple plot points in the 80s/90s… but then the 2000s happens and they are like…black people WHO? 😂😂😂
Right!?!? It’s so wild 😭 idk maybe she was the token black character that they actually wanted to invest time and energy in, I wouldn’t put it pass them that her being biracial played a part chile
Another great video! I agree with a lot of this. During my current rewatch of Degrassi, it is so eye-opening to see how they truly had no idea what to do with the characters of color in general and the Black female characters specifically. It is so frustrating to watch them give every white character interesting and thought provocating storylines that we don't typically see and then give the characters of color stereotypical stories with no depth or originality or nothing at all. There are so many characters that got a piece of a story that I hoped would get more but we got stereotypes e.i. Liberty, Sav, Ali, Drew, Griffin, Danny, Manny, Kendra, etc. As for shay, I would love to know the make-up of the writing room from Degrassi: the next class because it seemed that they were trying to right some of the wrongs of previous seasons when it came to diversity.
Thank you so much love! ❤️❤️❤️ and I completely agree and I didn’t even realize how like you said white characters got so many interesting thought provoking plots while many POC characters got some stereotypical roles, and yeah I def feel like they were trying to better in The Next Class but they’ve def had plenty of room to grow
Rewatching Degrassi it’s something that really sucks to notice. I hated how they made Chantay, Marisol and Shay as a “two timer” when it came a to relationship. Cause Chantay talked Leía into breaking up with Danny, Marisol was the reason KC wasn’t going home to Jenna and Shay went into a relationship with Tiny after him and Lola broke up. I didn’t personally like that along with their little to no character development it makes they seem like they’re “cheap” or disposable the way the boys sometimes act like they are. They were always supportive characters and never fully developed characters.
I def agree!! Especially in Chantay and marisol’s cases, then the lack of character development really showed that they don’t give af about actually fleshing out these characters, just wanted to use them to push their white counterpart’s storylines
@@ShaneTheCreative yup, it’s honestly sad but a lot of shows like that one or even Gossip girl really stray away from a story line about black and brown people, and they’re involved it’s only to make the white peoples stories more interesting. It’s sad a lot of shows were like that and stayed like that but I’m glad that Netflix is coming out with some shows with some representation of people of color with Grand Army and Never have I ever. But it’s still something that even in society today it just is annoying how obvious it is
@@julianna197 I def agree!! Their writing always favor white characters more and they invest time into developing them and giving them actually well written storylines
Love this video! So needed. I agree with everything you said. Hazel was my favorite and she never got enough shine. Even during the breakfast club inspired episode we saw how everyone ended up in detention expect her. She just said it and they moved on smh. Even on the virtual reunion they recently did Andrea barely spoke. I felt so bad for her.
Thank you so much 🥹♥️ and truly Hazel deserved so much better!!! They could’ve done so much more with her character but instead they opted just to use her as a sidekick and a tool to help progress the plot of characters that were giving much more time and effort put into them
I hated their lack of plus sized characters- because growing up I was over weight and degrassi made me- a black over weight girl feel good but after Terri left and there were no more plus sized characters other than Mo I felt horrible- like when I was a twelve year old girl I NEEDED that I really did- I needed some kind of representation and I never got that…
I completely agree and feel that! Degrassi (and television/media as a whole tbh) def need more representation of various different body types, and just to normalize bigger/wider built bodies as opposed to all of their students being slim and similar body types, like it’s just not realistic. Hopefully that’s something they’ll fix with it’s return!
There was a bigger girl in the original Degrassi Jr High/Degrassi High. She never got any story lines or much dialogue, but she was an interesting character just because she was so present, always in the background, super involved in school activities. I think her name was something like Cathy but I don't remember.
Lmaooo u got me invested in these characters and I STEEL have not seen the show lol They did them all dirty, especially that one girl you said that got held back but did NOTHING in the show with the extra screen time lololol Your art looks amazing and the music was a nice touch!
LOL thank you so much for going out your way to watch my degrassi vids Deuce despite not ever even watching the show 🥺❤️ (maybe I’ll be able to convince you to watch a season 👀👀🥴) and literally! What made it worse was all the hate that character would receive from the fans too, and thank you so much!! 💖💖 I appreciate it and I appreciate the feedback too!!
I loved Hazel and Chantay. But never knew their backstory or even parents. They were typical "best friend carriers". I also noticed whenever the boys were closeted gay or trying to make their girls jealous they would date Marisol or Chantay or when none of the white girls wanted Jimmy, Moe 😅 (Hazel & Marisol).
Marco and Hazel as well, they tried to put them together when we knew he was in the closet. Ummm...with Jimmy it was a bit of a strange one, so he was dating Ashley first then Paige tried to make Ashley jealous by kissing Jimmy during a play rehearsal at English class. Then Jimmy and Ashley broke up, then Jimmy tried dating Ellie who said he was cute but she couldn't go out with him because Ash is her best friend, then he went out with Ash again then they broke up again, then he went out with Hazel and nothing happened through their entire relationship until Hazel broke up with Jimmy because he said Ellie inspired his art, then Jimmy asks Ellie out and she says she likes someone else (obsessed over Craig...deserves whatever heartache she gets) then Ashley gets back together with Jimmy and then Jimmy and Ashley stay together for nearly a year (school time) and break up when Jimmy goes out with the newly introduced guest character (yeah they had to bring a guest character who also was paralyzed) Trina who he said he wanted to marry in his last ever appearance on the show in an episode in Season 8. Technically they did barely enough to kinda make it not seem that way for Jimmy even though it did but everyone else it happened to in classic textbook fashion which is horrible. I always wondered what it would be like if Jimmy and Emma ever were together...he's too good for her, she would have drove him crazy
There were definitely a lot of magical negro characters in Degrassi that were put there as nothing more than plot devices. Jimmy for example, was used as a tool to help Spinner to grow up and learn from his mistakes. The which story arc was focused only on Spinner’s growth and healing.
“Magical negros” 😭😭😭 but literally! And it’s even worse considering that Jimmy is one of the Black characters to get a decent amount of screen time and attention from the writers than most of the other Black characters, meaning they wasn’t given shit 😭 the writers ain’t even try to hide the fact that they had no real purpose besides being tools to progress the storylines of their white counterparts
@@ShaneTheCreative Exactly. So sad though, Liberty's pregnancy was focused on JT, Jimmy being put in a wheelchair was focused on Spinner 'getting back his friends'. Damn...Degrassi did us dirty
It’s funny because I’ve rewatched degrassi seven times since I was seven to twelve (stopped after that 💀) and each time I completely forgot about Kesha- I just forgot about her and I blame the writers for that
They really added her in just to ghost her character completely after Zoe’s S/A storyline, when they could’ve easily included her in with Frankie’s class
Yeah I hate that, especially when people claim that reflecting the actual diversity of a city will end up turning away the white audience. Well if that's true, go then. We had to sit on the sidelines for our entire lives without complaining. Look at all other shows supposedly based in major cities like Friends, set in New York City, majority white cast, very few appearances from black or other ethnic minority characters. Same goes for How I Met Your Mother, both shows produced in LA, another very ethnically diverse city. Both shows overlapped with when Degrassi: TNG came out. It's absolutely pathetic.
@@codesm96 I think after Season 10 they got better, but again, most of the characters of color had NO character development. Like they were just fill-in roles. The Black Canadian characters were either biracial or sidetracked (Liberty was not developed much for a main cast member) while the kids whose parents were immigrants were almost NEVER seen speaking another language, knowing much about their homeland, or even referencing it ever. The Bhandari kids (Sav and Alli) were the first ones whose ethnic background regularly affected their lives.....in Season 8. Before that, no one. Next Class got better about it, with the show bringing up racism in academic discipline, the Syrian refugee students coming in, and Lola actually speaking Spanish on-screen. As for the Black girls of the show, Next Class finally gave some story to Shay, even if it started off being about her two friends Frankie and Lola. So.....it took too damn long, but Next Class actually started to take notice.
@@hiphipjorge5755 So sad. For how much I loved Degrassi, this is a very valid reason to not like the show that much because although they say 'it goes there' they never really did when it came to ethnic minority characters. Next Class is better with characters of color however it's a shame a lot of plots and characters were nothing like The Next Generation onwards. If we could have a mix of how compelling the storylines were in TNG (for white characters) and also had the better, more full portrayal of characters of color not being sidekicks or plot devices similar to Next Class but even better (they screwed Shay up early on by sticking to the female black friend trope but got better after). then maybe Degrassi could have gone down in the history books for being a truly authentic show for it's audience
Yeah that’s why i didn’t focus or discuss her too much in the video, after Lucy from Degrassi JH/High Liberty is the only black female character to get proper main character treatment, even tho a lot of her storylines began to revolved around JT
Great deep dive video.i was just thinking about this issue when watching the reality show southern charm which features mostly white blonde females who look exactly the same.i work occasionally as an extra in Atlanta tv and film.i actually feel bad that black females get treated like glorified extras.cant feel good,if you have trained so hard to be a working actor,then get upgraded to cast ,only to get one line in an episode.ive seen extras randomly given.a few lines hopefully this issue will improve since the strike and with networks like abc adding workshops for minorities that supposedly help them find opportunities in Hollywood.
Thank you so much! ♥️ And yeah this an issue that goes even just beyond scripted teen dramas and it’s sad & disgusting honestly, literally like you said. I truly hope a change is coming where Black women, especially darker skinned Black women, are getting casted for main roles. Also I’m in Atlanta too and I’ve literally been considering looking into doing extra work too, I just thought this was a cute coincidence lol 🫶🏿
I hate how women of color were treated on this show. The black women were extras who had a line or two, the number of asian women in the degrassi black hole is ridiculous, and we didn't really get any other women of color until Next Class (even then, you had one of the few women of color written as the "crazy" girl).
I understand your point but I do wanna add in that Esme was not just the “crazy girl.” Although never stated on the show, Esme is diagnosed borderline personality disorder with histrionic traits (it’s on the wiki) and I also have the same exact diagnosis and always felt like I had true representation on that show. It’s unfortunate next class wasn’t renewed for another season because they finally showed her having a fleshed out borderline splitting episode and weren’t able to touch on anything more afterwards. And I just don’t want people to think of Esme as “the crazy girl”. Seeing her and her behaviors instantly made me feel less alone. She’s not crazy she just needed help. But I do understand where you’re coming from but at the same time I also think it’s better they made a character with mental illness a POC. Because a common stereotype is that mental problems are a “white people thing” when anyone of any race, gender, or sexuality can struggle with mental illness.
Exactly. People say racism doesn't exist. Well clearly we see it with their writing preferences. Not asking for white characters not to be focused on or to be the majority of characters, just that you cast a little more diverse, give them meaningful storylines with nuance and that aren't stereotypical and develop them. Why was that so hard for them to do?
I tried something new with adding background music, lemme know what you think! Do you prefer it? Or was it distracting? Any feedback and critiques are welcomed 💖
@@la214la thank you so much for the feedback ♥️ I personally hate how slow and monotone I sound lol😭 so I thought some background music would help the “empty” parts of the video, I’ll make sure for my next video to lower it a bit more
They tried to explain this issue with liberty but she still became a bit of a glorified extra.The degrassi producers also tried to explain racism with lucy and blt,but they ended up getting less sceen time to.Degrassi still handles tough issues like racism better than American shows.
Very much on the “glorified extra” part, in my newest video I talk about Liberty and had did some looking back at her time on the show and I came to realize that they didn’t do her charater any justice either really. And degrassi was really ahead of its time with some of the issues they covered, just not in regards to misogynoir and neglecting their Black girl characters 😩😭
Goes to show that TV in general from American media really is racist. The people who obviously say 'woke crap' this and that are even more racist just because a character of color has any kind of prominence. The fact that Degrassi is better and is still pretty racist in their writing is very disappointing. This is the world we still live in. It's not any better. Look at movies like Barbie and other blockbusters, any series these days. People say it's on average better but it isn't/
Yes just because I personally felt like her character was better written and given more character development so my critiques really didn’t apply to her character (even tho there’s def flaws in the way that Liberty was written/treated so there’s def room to call out some stuff)
At least you got multiple black girls with actual lines after Jimmy/Drake left we had maybe 1 black guy who actually had something to say and he didn't last long.
@Kennedy-yy7qo Babe, the show clearly was lacking in actual diversity, including showcasing other POC too. I would’ve loved to have more Hispanic and Native American characters, but you getting mad at me for calling out their lack of care towards black(female) characters isn’t going to help with you getting those other POC characters. Maybe try calling that out, instead taking issue with me calling this out. Also, just having black characters to be the sidekicks of white characters and to stand in the background isn’t something I’m going to be happy and grateful for, we shouldn’t have to settle for the bare minimum when they could easily do more and do better
Race and nationality is not the same thing. White Canadians exist, Black Canadians exist, along with Asian Canadians, etc etc. their race is still White
the fact that Chantay was on the show for 7 seasons and was rarely ever prominent is crazy.
Real crazy, like the way they could’ve easily given her some main plots to actually utilize her character instead of just having her in the background for one liners but just refused to is terrible
It really is crazy I don't even remember a episode about her at all it's sooo crazy they basically kept her as a sassy black friend for the white counterpart
It really sucks that Liberty was left out given that the show chose to focus her largest storyline the teen pregnancy on JT instead of her unlike with other teen pregnancy storylines where the main focus would be of the pregnant person
That part!! I may not have mentioned Liberty in this video but the writers def neglected her character as the seasons went *on
@@ShaneTheCreativeI love Liberty and Drake they are great characters
We never saw Hazel's homelife and that bothers me still.
You and me both 😭 like so much missed potential thanks to the damn writers
Her first year when she was recurring they made her somewhat interesting. She cared so much about being popular she even hid her true nationality as a Somalian , pretending to be Jamaican. And that was the best plot line she got, before she was even main cast.
Its weird because Lucy from Degrassi Jr. High/High was SO developed and had solid roles in multiple plot points in the 80s/90s… but then the 2000s happens and they are like…black people WHO? 😂😂😂
Right!?!? It’s so wild 😭 idk maybe she was the token black character that they actually wanted to invest time and energy in, I wouldn’t put it pass them that her being biracial played a part chile
Another great video! I agree with a lot of this. During my current rewatch of Degrassi, it is so eye-opening to see how they truly had no idea what to do with the characters of color in general and the Black female characters specifically. It is so frustrating to watch them give every white character interesting and thought provocating storylines that we don't typically see and then give the characters of color stereotypical stories with no depth or originality or nothing at all. There are so many characters that got a piece of a story that I hoped would get more but we got stereotypes e.i. Liberty, Sav, Ali, Drew, Griffin, Danny, Manny, Kendra, etc. As for shay, I would love to know the make-up of the writing room from Degrassi: the next class because it seemed that they were trying to right some of the wrongs of previous seasons when it came to diversity.
Thank you so much love! ❤️❤️❤️ and I completely agree and I didn’t even realize how like you said white characters got so many interesting thought provoking plots while many POC characters got some stereotypical roles, and yeah I def feel like they were trying to better in The Next Class but they’ve def had plenty of room to grow
Problem next class was during sjw period. Seem forced, actors have 0 dime career.
Rewatching Degrassi it’s something that really sucks to notice. I hated how they made Chantay, Marisol and Shay as a “two timer” when it came a to relationship. Cause Chantay talked Leía into breaking up with Danny, Marisol was the reason KC wasn’t going home to Jenna and Shay went into a relationship with Tiny after him and Lola broke up. I didn’t personally like that along with their little to no character development it makes they seem like they’re “cheap” or disposable the way the boys sometimes act like they are. They were always supportive characters and never fully developed characters.
I def agree!! Especially in Chantay and marisol’s cases, then the lack of character development really showed that they don’t give af about actually fleshing out these characters, just wanted to use them to push their white counterpart’s storylines
@@ShaneTheCreative yup, it’s honestly sad but a lot of shows like that one or even Gossip girl really stray away from a story line about black and brown people, and they’re involved it’s only to make the white peoples stories more interesting. It’s sad a lot of shows were like that and stayed like that but I’m glad that Netflix is coming out with some shows with some representation of people of color with Grand Army and Never have I ever. But it’s still something that even in society today it just is annoying how obvious it is
to be fair, shay liked tiny and lola still went after him
@@julianna197 I def agree!! Their writing always favor white characters more and they invest time into developing them and giving them actually well written storylines
@@majinally3527 yes that is true but Lola was never implicated for it ever. Lola was never made to seem like the bad friend the way Shay was
Love this video! So needed. I agree with everything you said. Hazel was my favorite and she never got enough shine. Even during the breakfast club inspired episode we saw how everyone ended up in detention expect her. She just said it and they moved on smh. Even on the virtual reunion they recently did Andrea barely spoke. I felt so bad for her.
Thank you so much 🥹♥️ and truly Hazel deserved so much better!!! They could’ve done so much more with her character but instead they opted just to use her as a sidekick and a tool to help progress the plot of characters that were giving much more time and effort put into them
She deserved a lot better.
I hated their lack of plus sized characters- because growing up I was over weight and degrassi made me- a black over weight girl feel good but after Terri left and there were no more plus sized characters other than Mo I felt horrible- like when I was a twelve year old girl I NEEDED that I really did- I needed some kind of representation and I never got that…
So you never thought about exercise?
I completely agree and feel that! Degrassi (and television/media as a whole tbh) def need more representation of various different body types, and just to normalize bigger/wider built bodies as opposed to all of their students being slim and similar body types, like it’s just not realistic. Hopefully that’s something they’ll fix with it’s return!
There was a bigger girl in the original Degrassi Jr High/Degrassi High. She never got any story lines or much dialogue, but she was an interesting character just because she was so present, always in the background, super involved in school activities. I think her name was something like Cathy but I don't remember.
had her saying “most girls looks like this” to that fatphobic boy, just to never bring another plus sized character like her on the show
@@ellagoreyshorrorstories7524 I know who you’re talking about!!! But I for the life of me can not remember sis name 😭 I may try to google it!
I always felt like Ashley was biracial to me just passing.
Rewatching now I can def see why, but back in the day younger me just thought she was a White person with a natural tan 💀😭
S A M E
She is bi racial did u also no she was on a rap version of American idol on upn 9 created by Missy Elliott
They would either make the black characters a token, follower or a complete dork with terrible storylines.
it seems like Shay was Keisha’s replacement in Next Class. It’s like they couldn’t have 2 black girls on the show
Lmaooo u got me invested in these characters and I STEEL have not seen the show lol
They did them all dirty, especially that one girl you said that got held back but did NOTHING in the show with the extra screen time lololol
Your art looks amazing and the music was a nice touch!
LOL thank you so much for going out your way to watch my degrassi vids Deuce despite not ever even watching the show 🥺❤️ (maybe I’ll be able to convince you to watch a season 👀👀🥴) and literally! What made it worse was all the hate that character would receive from the fans too, and thank you so much!! 💖💖 I appreciate it and I appreciate the feedback too!!
I loved Hazel and Chantay. But never knew their backstory or even parents. They were typical "best friend carriers".
I also noticed whenever the boys were closeted gay or trying to make their girls jealous they would date Marisol or Chantay or when none of the white girls wanted Jimmy, Moe 😅 (Hazel & Marisol).
I’m dead cuz why that’s lowkey the truth lmaoooo 😭😩😭
Marco and Hazel as well, they tried to put them together when we knew he was in the closet. Ummm...with Jimmy it was a bit of a strange one, so he was dating Ashley first then Paige tried to make Ashley jealous by kissing Jimmy during a play rehearsal at English class. Then Jimmy and Ashley broke up, then Jimmy tried dating Ellie who said he was cute but she couldn't go out with him because Ash is her best friend, then he went out with Ash again then they broke up again, then he went out with Hazel and nothing happened through their entire relationship until Hazel broke up with Jimmy because he said Ellie inspired his art, then Jimmy asks Ellie out and she says she likes someone else (obsessed over Craig...deserves whatever heartache she gets) then Ashley gets back together with Jimmy and then Jimmy and Ashley stay together for nearly a year (school time) and break up when Jimmy goes out with the newly introduced guest character (yeah they had to bring a guest character who also was paralyzed) Trina who he said he wanted to marry in his last ever appearance on the show in an episode in Season 8. Technically they did barely enough to kinda make it not seem that way for Jimmy even though it did but everyone else it happened to in classic textbook fashion which is horrible. I always wondered what it would be like if Jimmy and Emma ever were together...he's too good for her, she would have drove him crazy
There were definitely a lot of magical negro characters in Degrassi that were put there as nothing more than plot devices. Jimmy for example, was used as a tool to help Spinner to grow up and learn from his mistakes. The which story arc was focused only on Spinner’s growth and healing.
“Magical negros” 😭😭😭 but literally! And it’s even worse considering that Jimmy is one of the Black characters to get a decent amount of screen time and attention from the writers than most of the other Black characters, meaning they wasn’t given shit 😭 the writers ain’t even try to hide the fact that they had no real purpose besides being tools to progress the storylines of their white counterparts
@@ShaneTheCreative Exactly. So sad though, Liberty's pregnancy was focused on JT, Jimmy being put in a wheelchair was focused on Spinner 'getting back his friends'. Damn...Degrassi did us dirty
They did Chantal dirty
Chantay sucks.
Hazel is my favorite character she’s amazing
She truly deserves more screen time and character development!
It’s funny because I’ve rewatched degrassi seven times since I was seven to twelve (stopped after that 💀) and each time I completely forgot about Kesha- I just forgot about her and I blame the writers for that
They really added her in just to ghost her character completely after Zoe’s S/A storyline, when they could’ve easily included her in with Frankie’s class
So no Liberty or Shay?
And the fact that high schools in Toronto are sooooo diverse makes me surprised that Degrassi's student population is so majorly white.
That part!!
Yeah I hate that, especially when people claim that reflecting the actual diversity of a city will end up turning away the white audience. Well if that's true, go then. We had to sit on the sidelines for our entire lives without complaining. Look at all other shows supposedly based in major cities like Friends, set in New York City, majority white cast, very few appearances from black or other ethnic minority characters. Same goes for How I Met Your Mother, both shows produced in LA, another very ethnically diverse city. Both shows overlapped with when Degrassi: TNG came out. It's absolutely pathetic.
@@codesm96 I think after Season 10 they got better, but again, most of the characters of color had NO character development. Like they were just fill-in roles.
The Black Canadian characters were either biracial or sidetracked (Liberty was not developed much for a main cast member) while the kids whose parents were immigrants were almost NEVER seen speaking another language, knowing much about their homeland, or even referencing it ever. The Bhandari kids (Sav and Alli) were the first ones whose ethnic background regularly affected their lives.....in Season 8. Before that, no one.
Next Class got better about it, with the show bringing up racism in academic discipline, the Syrian refugee students coming in, and Lola actually speaking Spanish on-screen. As for the Black girls of the show, Next Class finally gave some story to Shay, even if it started off being about her two friends Frankie and Lola. So.....it took too damn long, but Next Class actually started to take notice.
@@hiphipjorge5755 So sad. For how much I loved Degrassi, this is a very valid reason to not like the show that much because although they say 'it goes there' they never really did when it came to ethnic minority characters. Next Class is better with characters of color however it's a shame a lot of plots and characters were nothing like The Next Generation onwards. If we could have a mix of how compelling the storylines were in TNG (for white characters) and also had the better, more full portrayal of characters of color not being sidekicks or plot devices similar to Next Class but even better (they screwed Shay up early on by sticking to the female black friend trope but got better after). then maybe Degrassi could have gone down in the history books for being a truly authentic show for it's audience
Never watched degrassi just here to add a like
Lol thank you friend! 🥺💖
this vid deserves more views, really important topic!!
Thank you love 🥹💗
Liberty, while annoying, did get plenty of plots and plenty of development.
Yeah that’s why i didn’t focus or discuss her too much in the video, after Lucy from Degrassi JH/High Liberty is the only black female character to get proper main character treatment, even tho a lot of her storylines began to revolved around JT
Great deep dive video.i was just thinking about this issue when watching the reality show southern charm which features mostly white blonde females who look exactly the same.i work occasionally as an extra in Atlanta tv and film.i actually feel bad that black females get treated like glorified extras.cant feel good,if you have trained so hard to be a working actor,then get upgraded to cast ,only to get one line in an episode.ive seen extras randomly given.a few lines hopefully this issue will improve since the strike and with networks like abc adding workshops for minorities that supposedly help them find opportunities in Hollywood.
Thank you so much! ♥️ And yeah this an issue that goes even just beyond scripted teen dramas and it’s sad & disgusting honestly, literally like you said. I truly hope a change is coming where Black women, especially darker skinned Black women, are getting casted for main roles. Also I’m in Atlanta too and I’ve literally been considering looking into doing extra work too, I just thought this was a cute coincidence lol 🫶🏿
The reboot better do a better job
That part!!!
If it’s made by hbo max I doubt it… I hope but I don’t think it’ll be as good as the originals
Sadly it’s been canceled.
So sad listening to you talk about Grand Army now that it's cancelled. ugh it was so good!
Yeah imma have to run Netflix a fade for that mess 😤😭
I hate how women of color were treated on this show. The black women were extras who had a line or two, the number of asian women in the degrassi black hole is ridiculous, and we didn't really get any other women of color until Next Class (even then, you had one of the few women of color written as the "crazy" girl).
I understand your point but I do wanna add in that Esme was not just the “crazy girl.” Although never stated on the show, Esme is diagnosed borderline personality disorder with histrionic traits (it’s on the wiki) and I also have the same exact diagnosis and always felt like I had true representation on that show. It’s unfortunate next class wasn’t renewed for another season because they finally showed her having a fleshed out borderline splitting episode and weren’t able to touch on anything more afterwards. And I just don’t want people to think of Esme as “the crazy girl”. Seeing her and her behaviors instantly made me feel less alone. She’s not crazy she just needed help. But I do understand where you’re coming from but at the same time I also think it’s better they made a character with mental illness a POC. Because a common stereotype is that mental problems are a “white people thing” when anyone of any race, gender, or sexuality can struggle with mental illness.
All white writers
Exactly. People say racism doesn't exist. Well clearly we see it with their writing preferences. Not asking for white characters not to be focused on or to be the majority of characters, just that you cast a little more diverse, give them meaningful storylines with nuance and that aren't stereotypical and develop them. Why was that so hard for them to do?
I tried something new with adding background music, lemme know what you think! Do you prefer it? Or was it distracting? Any feedback and critiques are welcomed 💖
It was distracting for me but good video otherwise!! 🙂
@@la214la thank you so much for the feedback ♥️ I personally hate how slow and monotone I sound lol😭 so I thought some background music would help the “empty” parts of the video, I’ll make sure for my next video to lower it a bit more
@@ShaneTheCreative Oh no!! You have a great voice!! You don't need background music :) But whatever you decide to do will be good!!
Never really thought about Chante till now and your right
The way that they made their best friends shadows kills me
They really said our black girl limit is 2
Degrassi is returning spring of 2022 on HBO Max
I heard about it returning in 2023 I’m so mf excited 😭 I literally recorded a video just talking about it lol
@@ShaneTheCreative it did say 2023 sorry
@@leeleelayla5 no you’re fine boo! It’s okay
I love Liberty and Drake they are great characters
They tried to explain this issue with liberty but she still became a bit of a glorified extra.The degrassi producers also tried to explain racism with lucy and blt,but they ended up getting less sceen time to.Degrassi still handles tough issues like racism better than American shows.
Very much on the “glorified extra” part, in my newest video I talk about Liberty and had did some looking back at her time on the show and I came to realize that they didn’t do her charater any justice either really. And degrassi was really ahead of its time with some of the issues they covered, just not in regards to misogynoir and neglecting their Black girl characters 😩😭
Goes to show that TV in general from American media really is racist. The people who obviously say 'woke crap' this and that are even more racist just because a character of color has any kind of prominence. The fact that Degrassi is better and is still pretty racist in their writing is very disappointing. This is the world we still live in. It's not any better. Look at movies like Barbie and other blockbusters, any series these days. People say it's on average better but it isn't/
speak
Wait... was liberty left out?
Yes just because I personally felt like her character was better written and given more character development so my critiques really didn’t apply to her character (even tho there’s def flaws in the way that Liberty was written/treated so there’s def room to call out some stuff)
they ruined her character by having her sneak behind emma’s back with damien. that came straight outta left field
@@majinally3527 omg chile why I almost forgot about that mess 🥴🤦🏿♂️
@@ShaneTheCreative RIGHT😭😭
@@majinally3527 or the next season when she was in college 🤦🏿♂️ lol
One of the better characters of this show was Trinity . Ps i dont even know Kesha or heard of her.
At least you got multiple black girls with actual lines after Jimmy/Drake left we had maybe 1 black guy who actually had something to say and he didn't last long.
nah, there was Tiny and Dallas
@@nataliachan5904 also damian,dave,and danny (weird all their names start with d)
Atleast there was black character there was no Hispanic or native Americans why complain u saw black people I didn’t see none of my people
@Kennedy-yy7qo Babe, the show clearly was lacking in actual diversity, including showcasing other POC too. I would’ve loved to have more Hispanic and Native American characters, but you getting mad at me for calling out their lack of care towards black(female) characters isn’t going to help with you getting those other POC characters. Maybe try calling that out, instead taking issue with me calling this out. Also, just having black characters to be the sidekicks of white characters and to stand in the background isn’t something I’m going to be happy and grateful for, we shouldn’t have to settle for the bare minimum when they could easily do more and do better
@@ShaneTheCreative there was no white character there Canadian
Baby pull back from the mic! Please lol u too close.
Lmao imma try!! 😭😭😭 I recorded this about 2 years ago so I hope that my more recent videos sound a lil better chile 🥴💀
Technically none of the cast was white they were Canadian
Race and nationality is not the same thing. White Canadians exist, Black Canadians exist, along with Asian Canadians, etc etc. their race is still White
@@ShaneTheCreative says who excatly u don’t know there family tree